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  28 soldiers killed in Ankara blast

28 soldiers killed in Ankara blast

REUTERS
Published : Feb 19, 2016, 2:24 am IST
Updated : Feb 19, 2016, 2:24 am IST

Turkey PM blames Kurdish militants

Paramedics carry a wounded man from the site of the explosion into an ambulance in Ankara, Turkey.  (Photo: AP)
 Paramedics carry a wounded man from the site of the explosion into an ambulance in Ankara, Turkey. (Photo: AP)

Turkey PM blames Kurdish militants

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey for a suicide car bombing that killed 28 soldiers in the capital Ankara, and he vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq.

A car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey’s armed forces’ headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara late on Wednesday.

Mr Davutoglu said the attack was clear evidence that the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia that has been supported by the United States in the fight against ISIS in northern Syria, was a terrorist organisation and that Turkey, a Nato member, expected cooperation from its allies in combating the group.

Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state and which Mr Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing.

Turkey’s armed forces would continue their shelling of recent days of YPG positions in northern Syria, Mr Davutoglu said, promising that those responsible would “pay the price”.

“Yesterday’s attack was directly targeting Turkey and the perpetrator is the YPG and the divisive terrorist organisation PKK. All necessary measures will be taken against them,” Mr Davutoglu said in a televised speech.

President Tayyip Erdogan also said initial findings suggested the Syrian Kurdish militia and the PKK were behind the bombing and said that 14 people had been detained.

The political arm of the YPG, denied involvement in the bombing, while a senior member of the PKK said he did not know who was responsible.

The attack was the latest in a series of bombings mostly blamed on ISIS militants.

Turkey is getting dragged ever deeper into the war in neighbouring Syria and is trying to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades in its predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Location: Turkey, Istanbul